


I think that [he] could be...

by youraveragemushroom



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A little, Body Dysphoria, Canon Compliant, Explicit Language, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Happy Ending, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Lance (Voltron) Speaks Spanish, M/M, Mild Language, Quantum Abyss (Voltron), always a happy ending idskfhkdjshg, and the entire McClain fam, idk lemme know what else I should tag lol, ish, nadia and sylvio are precious, references to Keith's rampant martyr complex, sorta - Freeform, they say the f word a few times cause theyre adults and mama McClain isn't in the room lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29448054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youraveragemushroom/pseuds/youraveragemushroom
Summary: ...the better half of me.Keith recounts his time from the quantum abyss. Or, he starts to realize the inevitability Lance McClain—specifically, Lance McClain in his heart, in his life, and in his future.--“Three years, huh?” he teased, smirking.“Please forget you heard that,” Lance pleaded, dropping his hands and staring at Keith down the slope of his nose. “Is there any way I can ask you to never bring that up?”“Not a chance, sharpshooter,” Keith chuckled, feeling his smirk stretch into something more real. He was too far gone for this boy to even attempt to school his features into something less obvious.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 35
Kudos: 262
Collections: Just some pretty nice fics





	I think that [he] could be...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [phosphorus_alnilam_saiph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/phosphorus_alnilam_saiph/gifts).



> ORION HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY FAM ILY AND I HOPE YOU HAVE/HAD A WONDERFUL DAY FULL OF LOVE
> 
> [Go show Orion some love or else grr!](https://archiveofourown.org/users/phosphorus_alnilam_saiph/pseuds/phosphorus_alnilam_saiph)
> 
> (also title comes from [OneRepublic's Come Home ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmO1dFozx3g), because it's such a soft song and I imagine Lance would sing it to/about Keith, especially the first verse)

Keith came back from the quantum abyss with more than a little lost time. 

The first night back, he only had a moment between changing uniforms to examine his body in front of a mirror for the first time in two years. He was always on the skinny side, whether it be his high metabolism or years of neglect leading to semi-permanent malnutrition, but this time he actually looked sickly. 

His pale skin stretched awkwardly over his ribs and chest, a result of the weird time warp and having to sustain their caniverously-prone Galra bodies on nuts and berries for over a year’s time. Keith wasn’t in immediate danger of collapsing, but for the first time in his life he felt like he looked like an alien. 

That wasn’t his body in the mirror, with the bones protruding too much for comfort, so many tiny scars littering his body like a cosmos of past pain, and a haunted look in his eyes that steeled over once he realized how vulnerable he looked. Keith never really cared about what he looked like, but it was hard to reconcile this image with the one he had of himself in his head—two years expired and in possession of futures and worlds he couldn’t dwell on in this moment.

His fingers traced along the very visible veins on his wrist, watching them bloom a cool blue under his touch, as if he could coax them to the surface through mere suggestion. His eyes shuttered, the image of purple blotches across his body filling his head. 

The quantum abyss gave him more than just time to reconcile with his long-lost mother. 

Most notably, it gave him Kosmo—name yet to be confirmed by the canine—who gave him an understanding of what it meant to love unconditionally. Keith knew the loyalty he felt towards Shiro and Voltron were the closest things he had to a family, but something about his relationship with the wolf pup made him understand what it meant to love no holds barred. Although he warmed up to his mo—to Krolia, a mandatory two-year bonding session wasn’t nearly enough to mend the entirety of the family-shaped hole Keith had in his heart. 

And even more visceral than unofficially adopting his first pet were the constant bombardment of snippets into the infinity of space and time.

Because not only was it not enough to steal two years of his life and force him to interact with his absent parent—apparently the universe deemed it necessary to show him glimpses of the past, present, and future of as many realities as possible. Well, technically not all possible, but damn near enough for him to never want to see himself in third person again.

Staring at his pale arm, Keith’s mind transplanted the familiar image of purple bruise-like patches creeping up his body. He didn’t know if it was a future he would live, or a present some other Keith Kogane was living, but he spent many nights in the abyss trying to dream the images of his Galra blood awakening latent features in him away. Accepting his half-human heritage was a long journey, and he wasn’t ready to think about what changes his body would go through to match his interiors. 

That was how Lance found him, half naked in front of the mirror, staring at his pale, bare arms, breathing too heavily to be concealed.

“Hey, man,” the blue paladin said from the doorway, shocking Keith out of his daydream. He didn’t want to know what Lance saw—if the darkness of his eyes and long hair could hide the fact that he was one precarious thought away from a breakdown.

“Are you okay?” Lance asked, uncharacteristically soft. It was such a contrast to his usual bluster and the boisterous attitude Keith had assigned to his memory of him. A sudden memory resurfaced, another time he’d heard Lance this soft.

_“Keith, no one can replace Shiro. But the Black Lion wouldn't choose anybody it didn't feel was worthy to lead Voltron. I respect its choice. And you should too.”_

_I believe in you, and you should too._

“Yeah,” Keith croaked, shaking his head. “Yeah, m’fine Lance.”

Keith wasn’t dumb. He knew that Lance knew he was farther from okay than he had ever seen him before. But Lance wasn’t dumb either. Keith would rather be on the brink of death before he admitted weakness. Even if weakness was all he felt, right then.

“We can wait a tick,” Lance said, moving to cross. “If you need a moment—”

“I’m fine!” Keith shouted, turning away from the arm the blue paladin held outstretched. “Just—just go to your lion, Lance. We leave immediately.”

“Keith—”

“ _Just leave me alone!_ ” he roared, sounding guttural. Keith lifted his head, eyeing his yellow sclera and protruding fangs in the mirror. Behind him, also able to see his monstrous features, Lance froze. He didn’t need to look at him to feel the fear coming from the blue paladin.

Keith closed his eyes, his extra-sensitive hearing honing in on the soft clunk of the other boy’s boots as he left the half-galra to his turmoil. Keith stayed half-hunched long enough to be sure that Lance left. 

Or, he had thought. “When we get back,” he heard the other boy say tonelessly, “we’re gonna talk.” And with that, Lance shuffled out of the doorway, his lithe footsteps muffled after the door swooshed shut. Keith held his breath for another moment, before all but collapsing on the exhale.

Shaking his head, the red paladin scurried to switch his Marmoran bodysuit for the standard black paladin one, grabbing his armor to clasp on as he ran back to the hangers. He could worry about his appearance later. Right now, they had a wayward space prince and a rogue teammate to track down.

  
…---…

  
Things had moved at a fast pace when he lived with the Blades because the lines between day and night blurred between missions, and passing out in his nondescript bunk at HQ was always short-lived. Keith thought he knew what it meant to roll with the punches, but apparently the universe had a boner for pushing his limits.

Between finding the secret Build-a-Shiro facility and almost dying at the hands of a very-real-looking clone of his brother, Keith thought his brain had given up on giving up. This was his life now—being shoved headfirst into a new impossible scenario likely to leave him with even more issues than he had begun with. 

Waking up in the astral plane, his face burning with no doubt another scar and his arm aching from the phantom weight of holding onto fake-Shiro, Keith thought death had finally claimed him. Turns out it was just his brother—for real, this time. He wished he had more time with his apparently-been-dead-for-a-while brother before he was whisked back to his reality, but the sudden departure was very on brand with his general unluckiness.

He felt Shiro in the back of his mind when he unlocked Voltron’s wings, and Lance to his right. The others were there too, filling his head and his heart with a warmth he hadn’t felt in literally years. Racing through dimensional portals, Keith found that the tears he’d thought he’d been doing a good job of holding in were finally escaping, streaking through the soot and grime on his face. He just wanted everything to be over.

And maybe the universe felt cruel sympathy for once, when Lotor trapped himself in the Quintessence field and Voltron escaped unscathed, save for the last remaining fixture of Altea. Because the castle could be rebuilt, and they knew of at least a colony’s worth of surviving Alteans who could continue the legacy of the lost race, and Lotor wasn’t going to be chasing after them any time soon. 

They weren’t out of the woods yet—had to make it back to Earth and take down Haggar—but Keith was feeling lighter than he’d been in a while, with the return of real-Shiro, and everyone he loves making it out of the battle intact. Everything, for once, seemed like it would be okay.

Lance found him again after nightfall. Everyone had stayed in the same relative area on the foreign planet, spreading out their sleeping bags around the dwindling bonfire they’d lit. Kosmo had needed a walk to relieve some of the pent up energy from being cooped up in Black and Keith was still hyped up on adrenaline to even think about sleep, so he’d sat by a nearby riverbank and watched his space wolf splash around and run through the rushing currents. The wolf had dematerialized for a moment, and Keith was focusing so intently on waiting for him to come back that he hadn’t even noticed the blue paladin until he plopped down beside him unceremoniously.

“So,” he started, stretching his long legs in front of him, “this is where you’ve been.”

Keith, who definitely did not jump at his sudden presence, shrugged, catching sight of his pet on the other side of the riverbank.

Lance shifted slightly, pulling something out from his flight-suit pocket. “C’mere,” he said, gesturing for Keith to face him.

Keith frowned. “No, why?”

Lance huffed, though Keith now understood the difference between his amused exasperation and actual frustration. “Just do it.”

And Keith didn’t have a retort for that, so he did. It was dark, but the moonlight reflecting across the water gave his enhanced Galra eyesight enough light to see a tube of liquid in Lance’s palm, the label promising something Altean.

“What’s that,” Keith intoned, furrowing his brows. Lance leaned in, using a thumbs to roughly smooth out his pinched expression, startling a yelp from the other boy.

“None of your business,” the blue paladin returned, popping the tab on the tube and squeezing some blue gel out. Keith watched him rub it between the pads of his fingers, before reaching out to his face.

Instinctually, he jerked away, pupils contracting. “It _is_ my business if you’re putting it _on me_.”

It was Lance’s turn to scoff, ignoring Keith’s glare as he pressed his gel-covered fingers to his right cheek. It stung, and Keith was big enough to admit he teared up a little at the sudden sensation of Lance’s cool fingertips against his forgotten burn mark.

“It’s an Altean numbing agent,” Lance explained, voice gone to that unbearably soft decibel that always threw Keith off balance. “It won’t heal the scar, but it’ll help with the pain as long as you reapply it often. Needed it after the explosion when we first captured Sendak.”

Keith frowned, ignoring the burn when the skin at his cheek pulled. “I thought the healing pod fixed you up. You spent, like, three quintants in there.”

Lance snorted, continuing to lightly massage the gel into Keith’s burn. “Yeah, you would know, wouldn’t you, mister we-had-a-bonding-moment?”

“Shut up,” Keith huffed, rolling his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” Lance relented, his touch grounding, “I do. The pod healed me up, but my skin still felt like it was on fire for days. It was prickly, and I couldn’t wear my hoodie without feeling like my skin was chafing the entire time. Coran gave me some when he caught me walking around the medbay shirtless one night after everyone went to bed, ‘cause the air was cooler and soothed my skin.”

Keith hummed, tossing the image to the back of his cluttered mind. “I didn’t know.”

Lance shrugged. “It wasn’t a big deal, so it never came up.”

“It should’ve,” Keith insisted, signature frown making an appearance despite the other intentionally tugging at his downturned lips. “It wouldn’t have _not_ been a big deal.”

The blue paladin chuckled, eyes flitting from Keith’s cheek to his wine-dark gaze. “What?”

Keith grumbled, shaking his head. “I mean, you shouldn’t have suffered by yourself! You could’ve told us—we were a team, it’s what we should do.”

“You mean, we _are_ a team,” Lance corrected, capturing Keith’s wandering face with one hand on his chin. The other resumed his slow ministrations, though Keith thought it was unnecessary as he couldn’t even feel the burn anymore. He didn’t want to tell him to stop.

“Yeah,” Keith whispered, expression softening. “We...we are a team.”

_“We did it. We are a good team.”_

_You and me...we make a good team._

“And you can’t tell me I’m not allowed to suffer alone, you hypocritical masochist,” Lance continued, unaware of the emotions warring in Keith’s heart. “We still need to have that talk. Not right now, since you look like you’re gonna fall face-first into this river, but soon.”

“Lance—”

“You’re not getting out of it,” Lance asserted, swiping his thumb across the red paladin’s cheekbone one last time before letting his hand drop. The fingers holding him still by the chin followed suit, and he was suddenly only able to focus on those two dazzling blue eyes, seeing clear through him. He wouldn’t be surprised if Lance could read his mind, with how piercing his gaze was. Keith didn’t know if that was something he’d perfected over the years to add to his attempted-suave persona, or if Lance just knew how to cut that deep through anyone. Either way, Keith felt helpless under that stare.

“Fine,” he relented, allowing the shorter—heh, Lance will never shut up about that—boy to pull him up.

“Up we go,” the brunette muttered, shifting an arm around Keith’s middle. It was the swaying that made him realize just how tired he truly was.

“The gel’s painkiller also has a side-effect of making you drowsy,” Lance explained, breath wafting hot against the shell of Keith’s ear. “Forgot to mention it, sorry. I suggest putting it on before bed.”

Keith, unable to form a coherent thought between Lance pressed up against him, practically holding him up, and the sudden drowsiness of the drug, merely nodded. He thinks he may have grunted something, but it went unanswered.

“Here, boy!” Lance whisper-yelled, snapping his fingers to summon the space wolf. Kosmo materialized beside them, mysteriously dry despite Keith knowing he had been sopping wet when Lance joined them. He decided no to question it.

“Good space wolf,” Lance chuckled, petting Kosmo with his free hand. “Let’s get you and your dad back to bed, yeah?”

Keith knew, from waking up in his sleeping bag, cuddled by Kosmo from behind, that Lance had definitely tucked him into bed that night. The light from the planet’s sun was just beginning to streak across their campsite, illuminating their large party’s slumbering forms. The red paladin’s eyes were still heavy, likely to fall shut for a few more vargas before they needed to start packing up. 

He was on his side, fully able to view the blue paladin snoring away in the sleeping bag beside him. Keith watched Lance—starfished as much as he could in his contained sleeping arrangement, mouth wide open, hair ruffled from tossing and turning all night, freckles washed out from their time in space, nose twitching from the chilly air, the steady rise and fall of his chest that signified that the boy so full of life was real and safe and _here_ —for a moment, before letting the warmth of his space dog at his back and the memory of last night in his head lull him back to sleep.

  
…---...

  
The journey back to Earth—to _home_ —was long and just as exhausting as the rest of their lives as paladins. 

A couple of ambushes, floating through dead space, and an _intergalactic game show_ (the less said about that nightmare, the better) later, they finally made it back to their home planet. The familiar yellow sun was temporarily blocked by the hordes of Galra ships circling the planet. Keith forgot he wasn’t flying Red for a moment, because that was all he could see. In the heat of the moment, every second felt charged and Keith couldn’t tell one heartbreak from the next. 

The thing about his time in the quantum abyss was that the visions he saw were sporadic and suspended in a timeless void. As a result, he never knew what to expect, and when the visions would end. One time, he spent three days’ time watching his friends mourn his death, becoming so engrossed in it he was shocked to return back to his body on the space whale. He didn’t sleep for two days. And each cry, or lazer, or crunch of metal against metal put him back in that fight-or-flight mindset that kept telling him to _wake up, just wake up, it’ll go away if you. Just. Wake. Up!_

But he couldn’t. Because this pain and anguish was real. His friends were really here, fighting for their lives, putting everything they had behind him and their cause, trusting him to lead them to victory. 

So he matched their ferocity, and pushed even further, and secured them a safe passage home while the battle raged around them. Made sure they got to see their families again, if only for one last time. And then he pushed further, sharing the warmth of their collective strength, to finally defeat the mega-robeast-monstrosity. All to find another mystery nestled in its core, in the form of an unconscious Altean.

That was when Keith decided that he deserved a break. Luckily, with Shiro’s persistence, they were afforded a week with their families before they were shot back into the cosmos with a new objective.

Keith didn’t have to go far, taking Krolia and Kosmo—and Romelle, who had basically wiggled her way into his tiny, broken family—to visit his father’s grave and the old shack wasting away off-site. He saw the little hovel with news eyes, having experienced it’s past through abyss-visions, eyeing the empty rooms now as the spaces his parents fell in love. The desert held a new meaning for Keith, a new buzzing energy that ushered him _away_ instead of _towards_ like it had always done. It was like the opposite of the Blue lion calling to him. The anxious feeling to finally meet someone he had been destined to know—it had been replaced with an ache that felt like rupturing old wounds every time his eyes caught on the familiar.

They left before nightfall, leaving everything as it was. 

He saw Shiro often during the week, as he also opted to stay at the Garrison. Romelle ditched him the second day for Allura and Coran, who had been working nonstop on attempting to disengage the Altean from the robot. Not wanting to be stuck alone with his mother, despite the progress they had made towards building a positive relationship, Keith spent a lot of his time walking around the refurbished military base. It wasn’t odd to see the red paladin and his large, glowing space wolf milling about in a random hanger, or tucked into a corner with a random novel, or following Shiro as he conducted Atlas business.

The most social interaction he had was when he bumped into Veronica McClain and the MFE pilots, who roped him into joining them as they ran test simulations. To the chagrin of one James Griffin, and the amusement of literally everyone else, Keith was still able to outfly every one of his peers. The paladin stepped away once a crowd started form, opting to finish that novel Shiro gave him before they had to leave Earth. 

He’d even taken to reading aloud to Kosmo, when they were alone, since the wolf seemed to listen intently and it calmed him as well. Back in the abyss, before the wild pup trusted him, he’d sit a ways away and tell him stories of his adventures with the Blade. On the more somber nights, usually after a particularly poignant flashback or a vision that left him shaking, Keith even told his furry friend about his time with Voltron. He wouldn’t be surprised if Kosmo’s quick acceptance of the team—and a certain fixation the wolf had with the blue paladin, who always had pets for him and cooed at the bear-sized puppy—was an extension of Keith’s love for them.

He was sitting on Black, reciting to Kosmo the last few paragraphs of a romance novel he’d never admit to reading, when Lance found him again. He’d hoped to finish the book before the last few rays of sunlight dipped below the horizon, but watching the sun set with...Lance, is slightly higher on his list of wants.

“Man,” he hears in a familiar lazy drawl, “you can be a real hard guy to find when you wanna be.”

“Hey Lance,” Keith chuckled, not bothering to turn. He was rewarded, a moment later, with the blue paladin flopping down beside him. Kosmo reached across Keith’s lap to sniff at Lance, practically mewling until he showered the space wolf with affection.

“And hello to you too, Kosmo~!” Lance cooed, leaning into Keith to pet the wolf better. Kosmo ended up laid across them, tail curled around the red paladin and head in the lap of the blue one.

The brunette turned to Keith, then, the sunlight illuminating his face in a way that no star in space ever could. “You watching the sun set?” he asked, and _there it was again_ —that softness that was now becoming a fixture in his picture of Lance. The blue paladin was loud, obnoxious, shameless, beautiful, and unbearably soft with Keith in a way that he didn’t think his ragged edges allowed people to be. But maybe Keith wasn’t as rough and tough as his exterior portrayed him to be, if he was feeling these emotions and thinking these thoughts. And maybe he was okay with that, if it allowed Lance to smile at him the way he was smiling at him in the dying light of their last day on Earth.

“Yeah,” Keith exhaled, averting his eyes from one sun to the other, watching it dip behind the cliffs he’d driven off of years ago. “Might be a while before we get to see it again.”

Lance sighed, mirroring him at his right. “Man, I’m really gonna miss this place.”

Keith hummed, not fighting the urge to glance at the other boy from out of the corner of his eye. More than anything about their home planet, he thinks he’ll miss the way it framed the boy beside him—warm, solid, unshakeable against the riptide of Keith’s abandonment issues. A week under their familiar sun was enough to coax the faded freckles on the paladin back to full force, and there was a softness in his oceanic eyes that he was afraid would wash away once they left for space.

“That’s why we’ve gotta end this war,” Keith decided on, exhaling deeply. “For everyone we love, but also for a promise for the future.”

“You thinking ‘bout the future, Kogane?” Lance teased, though he was still pressed close to the red paladin. 

“Yeah,” Keith chuckled humorlessly, twisting his fingers into Kosmo’s thick mane. “Didn’t use to, but...things are different, now.”

“Like?”

He turned, only to find those piercing blue eyes fixated on him. Lance always had a way of capturing all his attention (though Keith would _never_ admit it to him), but for the first time Keith felt like maybe he had all of Lance’s. Had he always looked at him like this? Like anything and everything Keith could give him would be irreplaceable if he missed it?

“Just,” Keith almost-whispered, breath hitching, “have a lot of things to look forward to, now.”

“When didn’t you, prodigy?” Lance scoffed, swinging the leg hanging over the edge.

Keith snorted, shaking his head. “Don’t you mean dropout?”

“You were a prodigy, first,” Lance retorted easily, smirking. “Still are, despite being a high school dropout.”

And Keith didn’t know how to deal with a Lance that wasn’t fueling their rivalry. He wasn’t familiar with this Lance who complimented him, albeit backhandedly. Except that was a lie, wasn’t it? Because before Keith ran away from his emotions, to the Blades, Lance had come to him with his insecurities. And maybe it wasn’t the best way to deal with his budding feelings and the fear that Lance didn’t realize how important he was, but he’d seen the opportunity as a two birds one stone kind of situation. Maybe if he’d been a little less impulsive, a little less scared of caring, he’d have stayed. But the quantum abyss, though stealing two years of his life, taught him that it was useless to contemplate the what-ifs and the could-bes. All that he had was right now.

“Well, you’re not a cargo pilot, anymore,” Keith returned. “And even when you were, you always managed to be the center of attention. Still are, though attention is kind of a given with Voltron.”

Lance snorted this time. “Yeah. At least I have that going for me.”

The easy expression on Keith’s face morphed into a frown. “What do you mean?”

The blue paladin, startled, looked away. “Nothing. Forget I said anything.”

“No,” Keith insisted, craning his neck to force Lance to look him in the eyes again. “What are you talking about?”

For a moment, Keith thought maybe Lance would just ignore him completely. But then he sighed loudly, looking to the starry sky. And though Keith preferred Lance bathed in the light of the sun, there was something iridescent about the sight of him under their stars. 

“I,” he started, before pausing. “Sometimes—it’s just, like, I don’t contribute as much to the cause as the rest of you. Which, I know that we’re more than quantifiable statistics, and that there isn’t any inherent worth in us to be worthy of our lion—Hunk already got to _that_ lecture—but I…

“I just feel like I’m not enough to win this war,” he admitted, eyes blinking blue with specks of starlight. He turned to meet Keith’s eyes, tossing him a sad smile. Keith never wanted to see it again.

“Lance,” he started, untangling one of his hands from Kosmo’s fur to grab Lance’s. The blue paladin jumped, staring at their clasped digits, looking back to his obsidian eyes. “You’re...I can’t even begin to explain to you how important you are to the universe.”

Keith shifted, jostling the space wolf (who was halfway to a nap), facing his right-hand man completely. “You’re the reason this team _works_ ,” he continued, squeezing Lance’s hand when he opened his mouth. “Shut up. Don’t interrupt me, okay? No, you’re the reason we even got into space in the first place! Blue and you—we could’ve never done that without you. And then once we were in space, the only reason any of us spent _any_ time with each other is because of your stupid movie nights, or your spa days, or those weird scavenger hunts where you’d hide my jacket or Hunk’s bandana or something.”

Keith didn’t pause, bringing his other hand to cradle Lance’s between both of his, sans gloves for once in his life. “And then when I left, you’re the one that kept them safe from—from that clone. You’re practically the reason the coalition is this big, between the fucking rope show and how easy you make it for people to want to join the cause. And now? All of us are going to end this war. We are going to kick Haggar’s ass back into the last millenia, got it?

“And we’re gonna do it with the Lance that’s the Paladin of the Red Lion,” he exclaimed, leaning closer. “The Lance that’s always got my back. And the Lance who knows exactly who he is and what he’s got to offer.”

And he didn’t know what his face looked like, but he could see the faintest of blushes spread across the bridge of Lance’s tan nose. He knew his eyes were probably glowing slightly, an aftereffect of awakening his Galra blood. His adjusted vision also allowed him to see in clear HD the warring emotions on his partner’s face.

Finally, Lance pressed the thumb of his free hand into the furrow between Keith’s brows, smoothing it out like he did all those months ago on the riverbank.

“You’re gonna get wrinkles, fucking dumbass,” he muttered with unconcealed affection. 

“You’re deflecting,” Keith pointed out, though his frown lessened.

“Well,” Lance exclaimed, exasperatedly, “how am I supposed to respond to that?!”

“You could agree, for one.”

Lance scoffed. “Yeah, and let you be right again.”

“What’s wrong with me being right?” Keith asked, tilting his head in question.

Lance squinted at the taller boy, pupils dilating. “I can’t one-up you if you’re taller, older, and _also_ right!” he confessed, his eyebrows twitching dramatically. Keith thought this was the cutest version of Lance he’d seen yet.

“Why do you need to one-up me?” Keith retorted, now faking his confusion.

Lance took a moment longer to catch on to the teasing, shoving the older boy when he could no longer hold onto the laughter. “Fuck you,” the blue paladin shouted jokingly. “We may be teammates and friends, now, but rivals first and rivals we will always be, mullet.”

Keith laughed again at the nickname, loving the way Lance said it with a fondness he hadn’t before. “Of course, cargo pilot.”

Lance chuckled, letting the silence lapse at them for a moment. “What are your plans for the rest of the night?” he asked after a while.

“Finish my book,” Keith responded truthfully, tapping the weathered paperback he’d put aside ages ago. “Maybe see my dad one last time.”

Lance hummed, nodding. “Sounds nice.”

“Yeah.”

Another pause, before Lance jumped up suddenly. “I know!” he exclaimed, pointing to the startled boy. “Come with me to dinner!”

“Wh-what?”

“Yeah,” the blue paladin assured, grabbing an arm to tug him up. “You and Kosmo come with me to family dinner, and then I’ll drive you to see your dad and back to the base. That’ll one-up you—my charming personality and McClain hospitality!”

Keith squinted at the brunette, trying to see where the catch was. Lance was not amused. 

“You chicken?” he taunted, placing his hands on his hips and cocking them to the side in exaggerated arrogance. “Too scared of a home-cooked meal?”

And Keith had a response to that—he always had something to say to Lance—but it died on the tip of his tongue as he stared at that cocky smirk and the familiar playfulness in those blue eyes.

“You’re on, McClain.”

…---...

  
Dinner was an ordeal and a half, to say the least. Keith wasn’t the most well-versed in all-things-family, but he figured the McClains were pros. 

Veronica greeted them at the door, greeting both boys and Kosmo before proceeding to embarrass the hell out of her little brother. Keith laughed at Lance’s steadily reddening face, watching him chase his sister into the house, Kosmo barking at their heels in excitement. Lance came back a second later, dragging Keith into the fray and kicking the door shut behind them.

Whether it was because the family was all under the same roof again or not, the charged atmosphere of the McClain residence was infectious, zapping Keith like a live wire. He expected to be somewhat reticent, maybe even awkward—having to rely on Lance to navigate conversations with his family—but that wasn’t the case at all. 

Nadia and Sylvio got to him first, firing a billion questions off one after the other, asking him about the lions, Kosmo, Voltron, and then his name.

“So you’re Keith, right?” Nadia asked, fingers tangled in his long hair. Keith somehow found himself sitting on the floor in the McClains’ living room, in front of Lance’s niece who was perched on the well-worn, sagging loveseat. It was at her immediate insistence upon first sight that he needed his hair braided, leading him to where he was now, holding back winces as she tugged harshly on his hair.

“Yeah,” he replied, making sure the pain was not visible on his face. In front of him, Sylvio was flipping through his sketchpad, lifting it to present to Keith his favorite pieces.

“And you went to space school with tio Leo?” she continued, violently pulling through a stray tangle in the paladin’s hair.

“Y-yeah,” Keith choked out, focusing his watery eyes on the crayon drawing Sylvio was showing him. It was some kind of animal, but Keith could hazard a guess between the teeth and the fins. “That’s a really cool looking shark, Sylvio.”

“Thank you,” the boy muttered, going back to flipping through his book. He wore a small smile, though, that warmed Keith’s heart.

“You were a pilot?” Nadia called, twisting the locks of hair between her fingers.

“Still am, just like your, uh, _tio_.”

“Yeah, but now you have magic lion-robots,” Nadia retorted. “Tio Leo said they do all the work for you.”

“Tio Leo said he’d take us on a ride soon!” Sylvio chimed in, beaming at him before going back to his sketchbook. He’d pulled out some color pencils, opting to draw a very familiar looking mullet. Keith pretended not to notice.

“I mean, I wouldn’t say they’re completely auto-pilot,” Keith started, thinking of how to explain the intricacies of Altean technology to the set of seven year olds. “We still have to use our brains and our hands to make them move. They just also have minds of their own, so it’s like being a team.”

“Like tio and Mr. Hunk and Mx. Pidge!” Sylvio exclaimed, looking up from his drawing. He’d begun coloring in Keith’s thick brows, no doubt exaggerated in the childish caricature. He hoped Lance never saw it.

“Or Mr. Shiro and Mr. Holt and old Mr. Holt!” Nadia chimed in, tugging on Keith’s hair in excitement.

“Sorta,” Keith relented, smiling at the two. “More like a two-person team, but you guys get the idea.”

“So, like you and tio?”

Keith paused, before nodding. “Yeah. Like me and Lance.” Nadia pulled his back into place, humming.

“That’s neat,” she said, though he got the feeling she didn’t care anymore. Keith tried very hard not to laugh at the condescension he was getting from her.

“Were you two ever partners at school?” Sylvio asked, not looking up from his drawing. He’d pulled it into his lap, using his knees to support the pad, effectively blocking Keith’s vision of the sketch.

“No, we weren’t in the same classes,” Keith answered. “I dropped out before your tio got into the fighter pilot class, so I didn’t get to know him until much later.”

“Uh, you mean _kicked out_ ,” came a familiarly obnoxious voice. Lance vaulted over the back of the couch—ignoring his mother’s admonishment—landing gracefully next to Keith on the floor. 

“You were _kicked out of space school_?!” the twins shouted, gasping and being just as dramatic as their uncle.

“Now look what you’ve done,” Keith muttered to the smug paladin. “I wanted to make a good first impression.”

“Heh, kinda ruined that for you myself, buddy,” Lance chuckled, grabbing his niece and pulling her over his shoulder onto his lap. “And you! You’re turning his hair into a bird’s nest, ‘Dia! Here, let the master take over.”

Lance quickly snagged Nadia’s previous spot behind Keith on the couch, ignoring her whines of protest. She pouted at her uncle, who stuck his tongue out to her in retaliation. That spawned an impromptu tongue-sticking match between the two, Sylvio and Keith watching as bystanders, before Lance caved and let the little girl win. 

He shook his head at his niece, turning back to his friend’s hair. Placing both hands on the sides of Keith’s head, Lance turned him so he was facing the opposite wall. He dug his fingers into the other boy’s scalp, beginning to undo the knots Nadia somehow managed to tie with the silky hair.

“Wow,” the blue paladin grunted. “She really did a number on you.”

“I guess?” Keith replied. “All I felt was pain.”

“Well, no need to worry anymore, _guapo_. Lancey-Lance’s got it from here,” he retorted, combing out the tangles left by the child’s rough treatment.

Immediately, both the kids turned to their uncle, iconic sly McClain smirks in place. 

“ _Ooooh~! Tio Lance_ —”

“Your mother’s calling,” Lance interrupted, shooting them a non-threatening glare before turning to where the kitchen was. “Aren’t you, Lisa?” he added in a yell.

“Uh,” a female voice said from the kitchen, “sure? ‘Dia, ‘Vio— _ven aquí!_ ”

“Coming!” they shouted in unison, scrambling. Keith noticed their giggling, though, as they looked between the paladins.

“What was that all about?” Keith asked once they left.

Lance hummed, fingers sectioning his thick hair. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

Keith huffed, deciding if Lance wouldn’t address it, he’d be better off dropping it too. He picked up a different thread that was nagging at his brain.

“What d’you mean when you said you ruined my chance at a good first impression?” he asked instead, frowning. 

“He means he spent the last three or so years bad-mouthing you at every turn ‘cause of your little _rivalry_ ,” Rachel said, plopping down next to her twin on the couch. “Although, we all know it was _really_ a—”

“Rachel!” Lance shouted, tackling his sister. Thankfully he’d let go of Keith’s hair first, before engaging in the world’s worst tickle fight with his sibling.

“Oh come on,” Rachel wheezed, poking her brother back where she knew he was sensitive. “You already call him _guapo_ —it’s not like you’re even trying to be subtle—”

“Get your nose out of my business and your ears out of our conversation, you devil-woman!” Lance shrieked, effectively drowning out anything the other said. Keith watched them, part-bemused and part-scared they were going to destroy a lamp. He could feel his hair falling and tried to keep his head from moving as much as possible, but it was to little avail.

“Mama!” Rachel called, ignoring Lance’s indignant yelp. “Lance is hitting me!”

“She started it!”

“I literally didn’t even _touch_ your _filthy_ ass!”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Di—”

“Don’t make me count to three!” Mrs. McClain shouted from the kitchen, causing the two grown adults to break apart immediately. Rachel stuck her tongue out at Lance, causing the other to shove her one last time before sitting back in his spot.

“Leave us alone,” Lance huffed, resuming his task of braiding Keith’s hair. He undid the entire thing to start over again, though the dark-haired paladin wasn’t complaining. He would never let Lance know, but his fingers felt like magic in Keith’s hair. 

“Whatever you say, _loverboy_ ,” Rachel said, turning away with a smirk. Lance shot her retreating back a glare, ignoring her chuckles.

Keith waited for Lance to say something, but of course he didn’t. He seemed content to hum lightly, carefully arranging Keith’s hair in what felt like an intricate pattern, but seemed to come easy to the blue paladin. He must’ve had practice, then, which Keith didn’t think too hard about. The image of Lance, a few years younger than he is now, watching his mother braid one of his sister’s hair, copying her technique on the other, inevitably teaching Nadia before he left for the Garrison because by then he’d somehow become the best braider of them all—

“Your family is wild,” Keith murmured, feeling content with Lance’s fingers in his hair and his family’s rowdy laughter all around him. “I can see why you missed them so much.”

Lance huffed, though Keith could hear the faux-exasperation for what it was—fake. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, mullet. I didn’t miss these rascals at all.”

Keith rolled his eyes, chuckling. “Sure, Lance. I totally believe you.”

“You better,” he warned, tugging on the strand of hair between his fingers lightly. “I always tell the truth, you know.”

“Oh really?”

“Mhhm, duh. Like, for example,” he continued, “I _hate_ your stupid mullet. Between the split ends and the texture, you’d be better off chopping it all off!”

Keith hummed. “Is that why you keep running your fingers through it? ‘Cause it’s taking _Lancey-Lance_ a lot longer to braid my _mullet_ than I’d have expected it to.”

“You have a lot of tangles,” Lance scoffed, ignoring Keith’s knowing hum. “Can’t let you walk around with your hair all messy now, can we?”

“Apparently, you can’t,” Keith agreed, nudging his knee with an elbow.

“Hush, you,” Lance laughed, poking him in the back of his neck, which was exposed for once. He didn’t realize Lance had finished, tying the little tail of hair with a rubber band he must’ve procured before he joined Keith. “Change the topic, I’m bored.”

Keith, used to Lance’s obnoxious non-sequiturs, obliges. “So, exactly how long have we been rivals for?”

“I knew this was going to come back to bite me in the ass,” Lance groaned, slouching against the back of the couch. Keith turned, crossing his arms over the other paladin’s knees. Lance had his hands covering his face, which was turned up to the ceiling. Keith rested his chin on his arms, staring at the other boy amusedly.

“Three years, huh?” he teased, smirking.

“Please forget you heard that,” Lance pleaded, dropping his hands and staring at Keith down the slope of his nose. “Is there any way I can ask you to never bring that up?”

“Not a chance, sharpshooter,” Keith chuckled, feeling his smirk stretch into something more real. He was too far gone for this boy to even attempt to school his features into something less obvious.

“Dinner’s ready!” Mr. McClain called, waving everyone to join them at the large dining table, which looked to be ready to serve a small army.

“Oh, look, dinner time,” Lance sighed, standing up and tugging Keith along in one swift motion. “Oh well, guess we have to end this conversation and never talk about it again!”

“We’re adding it to the list of conversations we apparently need to have,” Keith retorted, letting himself be dragged along.

“Sure, Keith.”

Dinner itself was the best thing Keith had ever eaten, hands down. And he made sure to let Mrs. McClain and Lisa know that between every other bite. And when he wasn’t stuffing his face with food, he was laughing along with Lance’s siblings, who’d taken it upon themselves to embarrass their brother enough to make up for the year he’d spent missing in space.

“And then Lance was like, ‘ _cause baby you’ve been running through my mind all day_ ’!” Marco guffawed, ignoring the elbow his brother was attempting to break his rib cage with. “Which was hilarious enough on its own, but—”

“But then!” Veronica howled from Keith’s left. “That was when her _girlfriend_ came over—”

“Vero!” Lance shouted, attempting to kick her from where he was sitting in front of Keith. Keith, legs tugged safe onto the chair, laughed with her at Lance’s steadily reddening expression.

“And Lance just _ran away_ ,” Rachel finished pulling her twin into a headlock, ignoring his yelps. The only one of Lance’s siblings that didn’t join in on the ribbing was Luis, but that was most likely since his kids and wife were also at the table and he was supposed to be the responsible husband and parent. Mr. and Mrs. McClain—Roberto and Elena, they insisted he call them—rolled their eyes, but let their youngest get bullied by the rest of them. 

“Keith and I are taking dessert to-go,” Lance exclaimed, grabbing a few creampuffs and throwing them into a large ziploc bag he’d ran into the kitchen to grab. “He’s had enough of you guys!”

“Wait, Veronica was telling me about the ti—”

“Bye!” he cut him off, tugging him out of his chair and out the back patio within seconds.

“Wait,” Keith complained, digging his feet. “We can’t just leave! Isn’t that, like, rude or something?”

Lance waved off his concern, tugging him down towards the beach where they’d parked Red. She seemed to be enjoying her time in Varadero as well, content enough to let a few seagulls perch on her. They flew away as the two paladins climbed up to her head, laughing at nothing and everything as the weight of the universe fell off their shoulders for an evening. 

Keith managed to climb up first, and leaned over to offer Lance a hand. He grabbed it, allowing the half-galra to hoist him up, making sure the creampuffs Elena made weren’t damaged from the climb. The image of Lance’s terrified face, as the air rushed out of the airlock and threatened to drag him into the vacuum of space with it, saved only by Keith’s tight grip and desperation as he pulled him back to safety, flashed before his eyes. He’d rewatched that scene at least thrice, in the abyss. He kept his eyes closed after that, knowing that it wasn’t worth it to see whether or not this vision was from his past or from a reality that had a Lance-shaped hole cut out of it.

Keith followed the other boy, finding them back on the edge of a lion, sitting side by side. Kosmo hadn’t joined them this time, still lapping at Nadia and Sylvio’s ankles for more table scraps. Lance sat the plastic bag between them, opening the airtight seal. He took a creampuff and popped it into his mouth whole, gesturing to Keith to take one too. He did, biting into it. It tasted like the rest of Elena McClain’s food—like home.

“I don’t think I can ever eat food goo again,” Keith confessed, savoring every chew.

“We’ll be back before you even know it,” Lance reassured, elbowing him. 

“We?” Keith turned to find Lance already staring at him.

He shrugged, and if they hadn’t gone through hell and back Keith might not have been able to pick up the nervous twitching. But he spent way too long watching the blue paladin to not read his moods. “Yeah, we. If you want, that is.”

Keith opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He didn’t know what Lance was trying to say. He didn’t know what he wanted him to say. He said as much to the brunette. “What are you saying?”

Lance glanced away, steeling himself before returning to pin Keith under his beseeching gaze. “Come back home with me.”

Keith frowned. “You mean come back to Varadero after the war? Back to your house?”

“To me,” Lance corrected, plucking the bag between them and tossing it a little ways away. He slid closer, turning ninety degrees so his body was angled to press against Keith’s side. “Let’s get back out there, kick Haggar’s ass, save the universe, and then…stay with me. Don’t fuck off to the Blades or whatever it is you’ll use as an excuse to fuel your self-sacrificing, greater-good-obsessed ass. Just…”

“Lance,” Keith whispered. “I—where’s this coming from?”

And Lance—whose impulsivity could rival Keith’s on some days, whose lack of filter had led them to inter-galactic conflicts on multiple occasions, who spoke quickly and jumped between tangents faster than Keith dodged the combat gladiator—paused. He took a breath, exhaling slowly and deeply. Warm, soft hands found Keith’s, cradling his calloused one in between. Lance’s touch was sure but soft, like he knew what he wanted from Keith and was laying it out for him to read in the lines of his palms. 

“I know you left for the Blades because of what I said,” he started carefully, fingers tightening around Keith’s when he flinched. “Stop. Just, listen to what I have to say before you be your rude, impulsive self, okay?”

Keith nodded, unable to form words. He had vowed to make sure Lance didn’t know—would never find out! Lance was always smarter than he let on.

“When I figured it out, I wanted to fly Red to your fucking space taco hideout so I could actually punch you in the face,” he huffed, eyes darting to their clasped hands. “I know you probably had some other reasons to leave, too, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how my stupid insecurities didn’t help the situation. Between me feeling like a seventh wheel and your annoying tendency to be a decent leader the only way you know how, I put two and two together pretty soon.”

“Lance—”

“You promised,” he interrupted, shooting him a crooked smirk. It was a little wobbly, but Keith shut his mouth, knowing Lance didn’t need him calling him on his bullshit right now. “Anyway, I obviously didn’t storm the Blade HQ to yell at you, but know that I wanted to. Between you being gone and nobody listening to me about the Shiro-clone, it got really lonely for a while. I think I might’ve picked up the castle communicator, like, at least once a night, just to call you. I’d find myself walking the damn halls at ass o’clock, as if you had left me but left your stupid insomnia to keep me company. The only good thing about you being gone might’ve been the whole Voltron show biz, ‘cause I know you would’ve definitely snapped at someone and ruined our whole effort.

“And then Naxela happened,” Lance sighed, catching Keith’s wide-eyed expression again. He didn’t—he couldn’t know—Matt _promised_.

“Matt didn’t tell me at first,” Lance answered, reading the panic in his eyes. His hands tightened around Keith’s, this time like they were holding him in place. Keith couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t have run away if he wasn’t tethered in place between azure eyes and a reassuring pressure on his hand. “I had to practically wrench it out of him. I—I hate that you almost did it, okay? But, I also know why you did. It’s such a you thing to do that I didn’t even have a doubt that Matt was lying or misunderstood the situation or anything. And we definitely need to have a much longer chat about why you’re definitely not allowed to pull that kinda shit ever again, but I’m gonna add it to our long-ass list of ‘laters’ because I have something else I want to cross off that stupid list tonight.”

Lance paused, clearing his throat. His voice was beginning to go hoarse, from speaking or emotion Keith couldn’t tell. He squeezed Lance’s hand back, offering him a tentative smile to go on. 

Lance chuckled humorlessly. “And then what happened? Oh, yeah—you went and got stuck on a space whale with your mom, came back with Romelle and a literal cosmic wolf, confirmed everything I’d been saying for months about Lotor and clone-Shiro, and, well, we were both there for Voltron’s wings. 

“What I’m trying to say,” he restarted, shaking his head, “is that things don’t go well for me when you’re not around. Actually, scratch that—things don’t go well for _us_ when _we’re not together_. I can provide you with a list, if you want to get technical, but the last year maybe proves that enough that I don’t have to. We work best as a team, as partners, and being apart is obviously not in the cards for us.

“So fucking stay with me, you dumbass,” Lance exclaims, voice suspiciously shaky. “You and me, ‘till the end and all that.”

Keith took a moment to digest it all. His words, his watery, determined gaze, the hands on his and the cool, ocean breeze that smelled both like Lance and the future.

“You know what that sounds like, right?” is what he finally says, hoping to be the one to alleviate the tense anticipation.

Lance huffed, laughing wetly. “Fuck you, Kogane. So what if it does?”

“Just making sure you know what you’re getting into,” Keith whispered back, tamping down his beating heart. “That list of ‘laters’ is gonna come up soon, and you might not like what’s on it.”

Lance scoffed, reaching to flick him in the forehead. “Keith, I’ve been compiling that list of ‘laters’ since the fucking Garisson, waaaay before you even knew I existed. If anything, _you’re_ the one who’s gonna back out.”

“Like hell I’ll be,” Keith retorted, smirking.

“Wanna bet?” Lance sneered, eyes twinkling. The heaviness in the air was replaced with the familiar charge of their competitive exchange.

“Of course,” Keith exclaimed, leaning in with a smug grin. The heat from their faces mingled, barely a finger’s-width space between their noses.

“Oh, it’s on Kog—”

Keith was laughing into the kiss, and he felt more than heard Lance join him (in both the kissing and the laughing). Their grins threatened to ruin their first kiss, but the blue paladin tilted his head and slotted their lips together, leaving Keith breathless in a way he’d never experienced before. Lance took him apart slowly, first with his lips, and then fingers that slotted in his hair, tugging the midnight locks free from the braid he’d woven earlier, and then again when he slipped his tongue into Keith’s mouth. They took it slow and languid, saving the fervent heat for another time. Right now was meant to be a culmination of years’ worth of anguish and fights and sacrifices and friendship and love. 

The red paladin’s hands reached up, fingers twisting into the fabric of Lance’s shirt, pressing into his sides. He didn’t know if Lance could tell how much he lacked experience in this department, but he was reassured by the smile pressing against his, knowing that even if their first kiss sucks because of Keith, Lance would be happy to know he was the better kisser. 

Lance lurched away, pupils blown wide. His lips were wet, just starting to pinken, and his freckles seemed to outshine the stars above. “Wait! You didn’t say—”

“Of course I’ll stay, Lance,” Keith exhaled, voice cracking on his name. “All you had to do was...was ask.”

“Liar,” Lance whispered, referring to the first time he left. “But we’re gonna work on that, okay? Because I’m not letting you go without one helluva fight, samurai.”

Keith laughed, halfway between giddy and lovesick. Scratch that—he had one foot firmly planted in both, staring at this wide-eyes, bright-smiling boy who just wants him to stay. 

“I don’t think I wanna fight you anymore, sharpshooter,” he confessed, resting his forehead against Lance’s.

“Well that’ll make things boring,” Lance retorted, tracing a finger along his scar. His skin tingled, but for the first time it didn’t feel like a burn. It felt like a feeling he could get used to, even if he didn’t have a name for it yet.

“I’m pretty sure that, as defenders of the universe, we can afford to be a little boring,” Keith replied.

Lance hummed, cupping his cheek. “Um, what if I said that I wanna fight you on this?” 

Keith chuckled. “Well, if you insist…” He opened his eyes to find Lance staring back at him already. The hand against his cheek was warm, but he couldn’t tell if it was reflecting the heat from his blush or not. Lance’s other hand found his other cheek, cradling his face. Keith pressed his palms against the backs of Lance’s hands, holding them there, holding him. He’d never seen Lance from this close, before. He really was breathtaking.

“What are you thinking about?” Lance murmured, thumbs brushing across his cheekbones.

“Hm?”

“You got that little furrow between your brows,” he said, poking it. “Used to think it was ‘cause you were pissed or something, but then I realized you’re just dumb and think a lot.”

“I think that’s a contradictory—”

Lance flicked him lightly, pouting. “Don’t change the subject, babe. What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”

Keith ignored Lance calling him pretty, knowing he was only doing it to get a rise out of him. He probably could tell it was working, his hands still pressed against his growing blush.

“I—” Keith choked. “I’m just trying to make sure this is real.”

Lance frowned. “What do you mean?”

Keith sighed. “Long story short, the quantum abyss sucked—”

“Obviously,” Lance interrupted, huffing indignantly.

The red paladin shook his head, poking his...whatever they decide to call themselves, in the side. Lance yelped. “Don’t interrupt me,” Keith mimicked, wiggling his eyebrows like he’s seen Lance do.

“Never, do that again,” the other boy huffed, only half joking. “And I’ll shut up, now. Go on.”

“Okay,” Keith breathed, kinda wishing he could drop this altogether. He wouldn’t, though, since it was _Lance_ asking him. “The quantum abyss, uh, you know it bends time weird, right?”

“Yeah...?”

“Okay,” Keith nodded. “Uh, well, it also, sorta, fucked with the fabric of reality, a little. I mean, basically what happened was...it showed us glimpses into other realities.”

Keith paused, waiting for Lance to interject, but he remained silent. The furrow he nagged Keith about appeared between his chestnut brows, but he didn’t comment on it. 

“And sometimes we’d see the past,” Keith continued. “Like, Krolia saw some of my time with the team, and I saw some moments with her and dad, before I was in the picture. And other times, well, we weren’t sure if they were glimpses into the future, or into other realities, or futures of other realities, or whatever. I saw...a lot of things in there. Enough for a million different ‘later’s, really. Some good, some bad. And, even though I’m _pretty sure_ we made it out and we’re back on Earth and I’m back with the team…”

Keith trailed off, unwilling to say it. How could he look Lance in the eyes and admit that he’d stared into a hundred different versions of them and didn’t think any of them could be his reality?

“Oh,” Lance breathed. He let the admission linger, letting Keith take his hands and fiddle with his fingers nervously. The other hand was still cupping his jaw, the one marred by the burn scar. Light fingertips arched across his face.

Lance leaned in, lips brushing against his brow. He pressed a soft kiss against the offending furrow, and then one on each cheek, making sure to press longer on the scar, on the bridge of his nose, and finally on his lips. And then he kissed him again, multiple little pecks that made Keith bubble with laughter, making it impossible for Lance to continue. Soon they were both giggling like high schoolers, foreheads resting against each other again, fingers intertwined.

“How about this,” Lance whispered, his breath brushing across Keith’s face. “Every time you’re worried that this—” he gestured between them and then to the air and sky around them “—isn’t real, you come find me, and I’ll convince you it is. That I am, in fact, not a figment of your wildest dreams, or at least that your wildest dreams somehow came true.”

Keith laughed, easily falling into Lance’s arms. The brunette’s arms wound around his shoulders, fingers finding a home in his dark hair once more. The dark-eyed paladin, in turn, rested his arms on Lance’s waist, admiring his cocky grin.

“Oh yeah?” he challenged. “How’re you gonna do that?”

Lance smirked, accepting the bait. “Like this.”

And he leaned in.

**Author's Note:**

> thx for reading! happy Valentine's Day to everyone and comments and kudos would be the perfect gift for lil ole attention seeking me lol. also hit me up on twitter [@redwlwmushroom](https://twitter.com/redwlwmushroom) where I scream about fandom lol!


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